[[image:../../../../file/view/EJC_Square.png caption="EJC_Square.png"]]

September 10 2009
VH
Big Idea: Observation and description of changes in the world around us are the first steps in finding and learning about patterns.

Essential Question: How can I visually explain situations where one thing changes based on another?

Notes: As the price increases on the tour, less customers are willing to pay. What is earned and the profit are different because much of what is earned is used for expenses. Some costs may include: rent of bikes, food, maps, gas, camp, water, and a first aid kit. Vocabulary: Profit- The amount of money that someone makes after expenses are deducted from
After money is spent on the expenses, what is the profit made for the tour operators?


  1. How much profit will be made if 10 customers go on the tour? 25 customers? 40 customers?
If 10 customers go on the tour, the tour operators will profit $150. With 25 customers they will profit $398, and with 40 customers they will profit $600.
  1. How many customers are needed for the partners to earn a $200 profit? A $500 profit? A $600 profit?
To earn $200 profit, the tour operators need approximately 15 customers (less). To earn $500, the tour operators need approximately 35 customers (less). To earn $600 they will need exactly 40 customers.
  1. How does the profit change as the number of customers increases? How is this pattern shown on the graph?
As the amount of customers increases, so does the profit. On the graph, this is shown as the points consistently increase in a straight line on the graph.
  1. If the tour operators reduced their expenses but kept the price at $350, how would this change the graph?
On the graph there would still be a consistent amount of space between each point, but the points would be less tilted if a line were drawn between them. This is an example:

Follow-up:
In the profit graph, points at the intersection of two grid lines, such as (20, 300) and (40, 600) are easy to read. Use the “easy to read” points to figure out what the profit would be if only 1 customer went on the tour. How about 2 customers? 3 customers? 100 customers? Describe, in words, the estimated profit for any number of customers.
If 1 customer went on the tour, the tour operators would earn around $30. If 2 customers went on the tour they’d earn $60. With 3 customers $90. Their profit with 100 customers would be $3000.

Things We Discussed in Class:
In everyday life people must think about their profits, so that they can have a proper income. In this problem we were predicting the profit amount if 1 person went on the tour, 2 people, or any amount of people by using the shown graph in our textbooks. Many people said that to find the amount of profits earned from one person going on the tour they divided $150 (the profit if 5 people went on the tour) by 5. They would double that for 2 people, and triple it for 3.